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Winning The New World. III. 



cTHissions to 
the Heathen 



a 



BY 

L. C. BARNES. D.D 



PUBLISHED BY 

We American Baptist Home Mission Society" 

23 East 26th Street (Madison Square) New York 



r 

I 




OUR denomination is to be congratulated on its way of 
conducting its general work for Winning The New 
World. Other communions in a number of cases, have 
entirely distinct Societies and Boards for carrying on the various 
enterprises enumerated below. We have but one organization, 
one office, and one set of officers for all these. 

1 . Founding Christianity in New Regions : We are 

now helping churches in the new, swiftly crystalizing West 
to sustain there about one thousand missionaries. An investi- 
tigation just completed in one state by the Federal Council of 
the Churches of Christ in America (thirty-two denomina- 
tions) finds more than one hundred towns there without any 
regular religious work, either Protestant or Catholic. 

2. Christian Education of Africans: One-seventh of 
our fellow citizens who are only one-seventh as far as Anglo- 
Saxons from completely pagan ancestors. 

3. Christianizing Heathen Indians: Many bands of 
American savages (at least thirty in the United States) are 
still untouched by any form of Christianity after four hundred 
years of spoliation by whites, and one hundred years of 
missions to heathen afar. 

4 . Conversion of Latin Americans : Great masses 
just out from under four hundred years of Spanish misrule 
are now incorporated with us. According to Roman Cath- 
olic authority they were never yet Christianized. 

5. Gospel Americanizing of Foreigners : They are 
gaining on us faster than ever, and now mostly from non- 
evangelized classes in Europe — Jews Greeks, Latins, — 
non-Christian Asiatics, too, scores of thousands. 

6. Chapel Building for Mission Churches : They 
are helpless without buildings and are unable to build with- 
out help. 

7. Salvation of Congested Cities : In co-operation with 
the local forces of Christ, which are hard bestead, almost 
overwhelmed by the prodigious developments cf our day. 



i 




HE following is not an account of the 
work among the heathen, which is 
now being conducted by the Ameri- 
can Baptist Home Mission Society, 
it is but a single instance selected 

because it is one of the more recent 

and least well known. 



We have 1 1 missionaries to the 
Jlmerican heathen (not counting our 
missionaries to Chinese and Japanese 
heathen in America) wording among 
14 Indian tribes. There are 1,038 
communicants in our "Blanket Indian" Churches, 
recently rescued from pagan darkness. In the Indian 
churches of somewhat longer establishment there are 
3,211 members. Even these have been brought out 
of paganism more recently than many of the churches 
in Burma and other parts of East India. They are 
largely self-supporting. In the nature of the case, it 
is our high privilege and a necessity for a time yet to 
provide some missionary superintendence and Christian 
education. Indian University at Muskogee, Oklahoma, 
is our chief institution of learning among them. 



Recent investigation shows that after four hundred 
years of spoliation by white men in America and one 
hundred years of missions to heathen afar there are yet 
some forty tribes and bands in the United States 
Without Christian Work among them of any denomina- 
tion. Arrangements are now being made to reach 
these. As Baptists we must not fail to take our share 
of the new work among the heathen whose plight cries 
to high heaven in the ears of every child of God who 
has any sense of justice, to say nothing of Christ-like 
brotherhood, in "this glorious land of ours" — OURS ? 



Missionaries to the Heathen 

By Lemuel Call Barnes, D.D. 




I 



. A PAGAN LAND 

T is at the heart of the great central plateau 
of the continent, ranging from five to seven 
thousand feet above sea level, not counting 
ranges and peaks running three to four 
thousand feet farther heavenward. On this 
lofty platform the highest development of 
pre-Columbian life took place within the present territory of the 
United States. Ages before the Genoese started on his crazy 
sail for India, people inhabited this plateau who were at least 
semi-civilized. There are indications that the country was less 
and at that time and that it was inhabited by many more people 
tht^ than now, as well as by people farther advanced. Charred 
ears of corn embedded in lava along with implements of civiliza- 
tion suggest that possibly volcanic disturbances changed the face 
of nature, nearly obliterating the trace of man. 

Even yet, however, the Indians who in their primitive state 
are most nearly civilized/ live on this plateau, possibly the rem- 
nants of the ancient population. Our Woman's Home Mission 
Society has a mission among the most remote and uncontamin- 
ated of the Pueblo or town-making Indians, the Hopi of north- 
eastern Arizona. It is in every sense of the word a pagan land, 
a land of villages as the whole plateau once was. The Hopi 
Reservation is entirely surrounded by the Navaho Reservation 
in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The 
latter Reservation is about the size of Connecticut and New 
Jersey combined. It is the largest of the Indian Reservations. 

Every perennial spring and brook is precious in this country. 
Even wells are marked on Government maps. Every wayfarer 
must be careful to reach water for a camping place, if possible. 
The missionary must carry a large canteen of water on his 
journeys for the sake of long stretches where none can be found, 
even of the alkaline variety, which is probably the only kind he 
can bring from his home. But wherever there is water will be 
found human habitations, the larger the oasis the greater the 



population. In the foot hills of the great ranges there are places 
of perpetual verdure and beauty. Yet even there, as in the 
valley of the Nile, if one lifts his eyes he looks out upon arid 
wastes not far away. In the Navaho country, however, they 
are not absolute wastes. There is pasturage, at least at seasons 
of the year, over nearly all the land. If water were more 
abundant there would be less hope of keeping white men from 
seizing this first and last stronghold of the brown men in our 
country. 

II. HEATHEN PEOPLE 

The Navahos were pioneers in our country long before the 
Spaniards or the English or the French. They came down like 
other tribes of the Athabascan race from the direction of 
Alaska, bringing with them a tradition that their forefathers 
had crossed a narrow sea. Some think that the happy marriage 
of one of the Indians with a Chinaman not far from where these 
words are written is but the coming together again of long 
separated members of the human family. 

The Government has made but one attempt to relocate the 
Navahos, and soon abandoned that. Their present reservation 
is the region in which the Spaniards found them in the sixteenth 
century. The Navaho pioneers had become old settlers genera- 
tions before the Pilgrims landed. For centuries they were great 
marauders, living largely by depredations on the agricultural 
Pueblo Indians, and later on Mexicans and other Americans. 
But they somewhat rapidly advanced from savagery to bar- 
barism. On account of their self-defense and independence 
many Pueblos and members of other tribes joined them for the 
sake of greater safety from savages both red and white. Hence 
they acquired some of the advantages which commonly go with 
amalgamation of races, as notably in case of the Anglo-Saxon- 
Keltic-Danish-Norman, etc., in England, and of the unnum- 
bered races in the United States. It is commonly believed that 
the Navahos first obtained sheep by raiding and that they 
learned the art of weaving from the Pueblos. The raising and 
care of sheep has become the chief occupation of the men, and 
the weaving of blankets the chief occupation of women. Next 
to sheep, horses are the great possession and means of trade. 
There is considerable agriculture, however, by means of prim- 
itive irrigation ditches. Corn is the principal crop. Beans, 
melons and peaches stand next in favor. The only other oc- 
cupation attracting much attention is silversmithing. By means 




NAVAHO CHIEF KITONI 



of crude appliances Mexican and United States coins are trans- 
formed into bracelets, spoons, brooches and buckles. Men and 
women both are fond of wearing belts adorned with as many 
large silver disks as possible. Bridles also are decorated with 
silver. Their silver work in addition to being moulded is en- 
graved. 

The varied industries of the Navahos mean hard work, of 
which they are not afraid. In this they are exceptional among 
native races. They cheerfully hire themselves out to white 
men, and according to all accounts do as good work as other 
laboring men. Every home has its simple hand loom, where 




MOTHER AND CHILD WEAVING THE FAMOUS NAVAHO BLANKETS 



the women patiently toil, having prepared and dyed the wool, 
working out the striking patterns of the famous Navaho blankets. 
As a "steamer rug" is a shawl, so, per contra, a "Navaho 
blanket" is a rug. It is commonly too stiff for comfortable 
wear. The men and the women all wear blankets ; but almost 
invariably they are factory made, one Navaho blanket selling 
for enough to buy two or three factory blankets. The trousers 
of the man and gowns of the women also are products of factory 
looms. But feet are mostly clad in moccasins. Men as well 
as women wear their hair long. The men tie it out of the way 
with a coronal fillet of some gay fabric. The hair on the chin 
they dispense with. We found by the trail one of their "tin 
razors," for extracting instead of cutting the beard. 

The Navaho house is called a hogan. Some are building 
cabins of logs, pressed adobe and stone. But most live in a 
domical hut of rough frame-work covered top and sides with 
earth. The two openings are a doorway and a smoke-hole. 




A NAVAHO HOGAN 

The fire is built on the earthen floor. In one instance I saw a 
hood and smoke pipe over the fire, made of tin cans. There is 
no room for tables, chairs or bedstead. Other utensils are few 
and simple. Some native pottery is in use. They frequently 
have a summer hogan, which is an airy booth, either detached 
or serving as a vestibule of the winter hogan. 

The Navahos are heathen in the original sense of the word; 
they are heath-men. Their calling as shepherds in an arid 
country requires them to move from place to place. They 
camp for the time in the most convenient region. They may or 
may not live near their cornfields. Land is owned in common, 
but occupation and improvements give a sort of title. Their 
nomadic life is one of the supreme difficulties in the way of their 
uplift by school, mission or home improvement. For instance, 
last winter, a mission located near one of their most permanent 
and thickly inhabited neighborhoods had but two families in 
residence. They are in the patriarchal stage of development, 
their customs illuminating the story of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob. It is a long way from Abraham's tent to the city of 
David. If we can help to shorten it, we shall be working with 
God in his process of human evolution. 

The Navahos are further advanced in some vital respects 
than were the biblical patriarchs. In the matter of monogamy, 
concubinage and social purity, they are in advance, not only 

of most aborgines, but also of the most resplendent days of the 
Old Testament. Many Indian tribes are literally rotting with 
native and imported vice. 1 he worst diseases, I am informed 
by Government physicians, are unknown among the Navahos, 
except near the sooty iron trail of the white man. Navaho 

9 



women are not in any respect the slaves of men. They do not 
do all the work, as in many tribes. But with their blanket 
weaving they are industrially the equals of the men. In domestic 
economy, too, they are equals or better. The control of the 
household is mainly in their hands. One of the oddest customs 
concerns a mother-in-law. What is a matter of superficial 
joking with white people is a deep-seated reality with Navahos. 
Mother-in-law and son-in-law must never see each other. If 
they do, blindness or some other blight is sure to befall. It 
is everybody's duty to give sharp warning if danger of a meet- 
ing arises. Even after reading of this in good authorities I 
could hardly believe that the custom still rigidly prevails. I 
found out for myself. A company of Indians was assembled 
m our mission hall while I preached to them through the inter- 
preter. With the exception of one or two young bucks, they 
were behaving with great decorum, when all of a sudden there 
were exclamations and a tremendous hubbub. I could not 
imagine the cause till I was told that a mother-in-law of one of 
my auditors approached the door. Instantly many shouted to 
warn the imperiled parties. The man within pulled a hat over 
his eyes, while she retreated. To avoid this constant menace a 
man sometimes marries the widowed mother of his prospective 
wife before marrying her. Then they are both his wives and 
there is no mother-in-law. 

Their superstitions are complicated and rank. By them not 
only is progressive beauty of character rendered impossible, but 
life itself is often imperiled. Their medicine man is both doctor 
and priest. Their method of attempting to cure the sick is by 
weird incantations. These "sings" as they are popularly named 
in English gather a crowd together and last throughout the 
night. According to all accounts they must be demoralizing to 
both physical and mental well being. "Sometimes pertaining 
to a single rite there are two hundred songs or more which may 
not be sung at other rites." "One error made in singing a song 
may be fatal to the efficiency of a ceremony ; in some cases the 
error of a single syllable works an irreparable injury." 

When the sick person is sufficiently wealthy or influential the 
wild revel lasts for days. Dr. Mathews, the leading student 
and authority as to Navaho customs, describes their great med- 
icine dance of nine days. On the last night a great fire is built 
in the center of a corral and eleven ceremonial dances are per- 
formed throughout the night. The following is his description 
of one of them : 

10 




- 



HE CURSE 



THE TKIISF 



"After an interval of three-quarters of an hour, the dance of 
the great plumed arrow, the potent healing ceremony of the 
night, began. There were but two performers .... Each bore 
in his hand one of the great plumed arrows. While they were 
making the usual circuits around the fire, the patient was placed 
sitting on a buffalo robe in front of the orchestra. They halted 
before the patient; each dancer seized his arrow between his 
thumb and forefinger about eight inches from the tip, held the 
arrow up to view, giving a coyote-like yelp, as if to say, 'So far 
will I swallow it,' and then appeared to thrust the arrow slowly 

11 



and painfully down his throat as far as indicated. While the 
arrows seemed still to be stuck in their throats, they danced a 
chasse, right and left, with short, shuffling steps. Then they 
withdrew the arrows, and held them up to view as before, with 
triumphant yelps, as if to say, 'So far have I swallowed it.' 
Sympathizers in the audience yelped in response. The next 
thing to be done was to apply the arrows. One of the dancers 
advanced to the patient, and to the soles of the feet of the latter 
he pressed the magic weapon with its point to the right, and 
again with its point to the left. In a similar manner he treated 
the knees hands, abdomen, back, shoulders, crown and mouth 
in the order named, giving three coyote-like yelps after each 
application. 

Another of the dances is like the performance of magicians 
who apparently make a plant grow before your eyes. In an- 
other dance, nearly naked Indians race after and prod them- 
selves and each other with flaming firebrands. These medicine 
dances are the religious services of the people. Is there any 
need for missionaries of sane religion and sanitary healing? 

III. HEROIC MISSIONARIES 

It requires nothing less than the spirit of Christ to faithfully 
work for these heathen people in such a pagan land. It re- 
quires also strength of character and resourcefulness little short 
of genius to carry a whole Christian civilization into such an 
aboriginal wilderness. Away from all the appliances, conveni- 
ences and fellowship of life which even the remotest village 
pastor has learned to depend upon, working alone here beyond 
the frontier, one expects to find some burly minister of the bush- 
whacker type as the only kind who could confront the savage 
conditions. 

After a long day's narrow-gauge ride through a nearly un- 
inhabited country over the continental divide, then half a day 
on a ''mixed train," the only train— alighting at Farmington, 
New Mexico, the farthest southwestern outpost of the dare- 
devil Denver & Rio Grande system, one is surprised that he 
does not see his expected missionary. Perhaps there has been 
a hitch in the carrying of the message by the bi-weekly horse- 
back mail. When the knot of frontiersmen has been looked over 
and hope is abandoned, a delicate looking gentleman, who 
might appropriately be the occupant of the chair of belles-lettres 

12 



in Boston or Cambridge, modestly presents himself. Perhaps 
the hesitancy has been caused by some disillusionment on his 
part, too. 

Soon the Field Secretary and Lee I. Thayer, missionary to 
the Navahos, are on congenial terms, jogging along under the 
white canvas cover of the missionary wagon behind "Peter" and 




REV. LEE I. TRAYER AND HIS WIFE, TWO OF THE 
HEROIC MISSIONARIES 



"Lizzie." Our Navaho horses are several degrees larger than 
the Society's ponies in Porto Rico. Still they are small loco- 
motives for the long trek through desert sands and deep, un- 
bridged arroyos. At the end of the first afternoon, having 
forded the San Juan River twice, with water into the wagon 
box, in order to visit a Methodist mission (no necessity for 

13 



winkling), we reach the edge of things including supper and 
"lodging at a frontier Mormon cabin. While the horses rest we 
walk in the dark to a Presbyterian mission, some say a mile and 
a half, some say two and a half, and some say four jiles and 
back No wonder that we miss the road and that Indian 
schoolboy scouts are sent out to find us, for the hospitable mis- 
sionary lad.es have heard of our coming and have kept a supper 
wa"tmg for us. Their cheerful lantern makes the way back 

brighter. . 

At dawn we ford the San Juan again, leaving the last traces 
of civilization and plunging into the riverless, treeless, house- 
less reservation. One butte after another rising above the 
horizon guides our way. But all day long Ship Rock is 
sight, as well as more distant mountains. During the orenoon 
it looms like a vast pile of Gothic architecture but late m the 
afternoon when only the upper peaks are visible, they look so 
like two sails of a ship on the horizon that you fairly expect to 
detect them pitching with the motion of the.r invisible hull 

What communings by the way concerning nature and man 
concerning scripture and science, concerning thought, both olde 
and latest. At noon, by one of the infrequent springs, ou 
gentle thinker quickly prepares a piping hot luncheon out ot 
abundant equipment in the unobtrusive box f ached to '^ 
dashboard— so attached that when removed it leaves no mark 
or mar, but when in place and the cover turned back it w .a 
lunch table in just the right relation to the wagon seat. He did 

Here in a small way emerges what later appears in a large 
way in everything about the mission station and the mission 
methods— common sense (so uncommon) to the degree of ir- 
resistible manual efficiency combined with a scholar s in ere* in 
language, learning, and in all the ethereal realms of lite, to- 
gether with intense missionary zeal and longing *« *e /edemp- 
fion of the heathen nation into the midst of whose habitation he 
has thrown himself. At one juncture a plumber was brought 
from the nearest town, two days journey each way, wh .looked 
the situation over and gave verdict that the ,ob to be done was 
impossible. After four days more in getting this expert back to 
the cover of a tool-house and bill-heads, our missionary himself 
did the complicated, impossible plumbing! 

To create the possibility and the platform for his work ot 
preaching, teaching, writing, counselling and doctormg. our m,s- 



14 








CHILDREN > P CUR MISSION eCHOOl 



sionary has had to do tree-felling, logging, stone-laying, car- 
pentering, joining, roofing, plastering, painting, paper-hanging, 
teaming, farming, blacksmithing, cabinet-making, shoemaking 
and even plumbing, to say nothing of bookkeeping and no end 
of Yankee invention. With all this to do he learned the 
language in his first two years so as to preach in Navaho at both 
services the first Sunday of his third year, With some promis- 
ing inquirers already, there is every reason to expect that we 
may have a Navaho church in much less time than it took to 
gather our first church in Burma or in some of the American 
Indian tribes where we now have most flourishing churches. 
Denison University — he is a Buckeye of course — and Rochester 
Seminary, ought to be proud to turn out (not in the sense in 
which David Brainerd was "turned out" of Yale) even one 
man in a thousand who can go into a physical and spiritual 
desert and do the kind of work which Lee I. Thayer is doing 
at Two Gray Hills. 

*£ Long after dark with its December chill on this high plateau, 

^ we reached the mission station built of adobe and logs. What 

a glowing spot it is amid the cold and darkness of Navaho- 

land. 

At this point one is introduced to a large part of the secret 
of the brave work at Two Gray Hills. It is a cheerful, refined, 

15 




YA/-YAII, NAVAHO GIR] 



thoroughly practical and intensely sympathetic home life. In 
other words it is Mrs. Lee I. Thayer. First of all the home is 
radiant with domestic affection, next it is aglow with missionary 
activity. In the forenoon ten little Indian children are taught 
the English language and are given elementary instruction 
through that medium. Mrs. Thayer learned the art of teaching 
in a State which a few years ago was ranked by an expert as 
foremost in that art, Indiana. Before the day is done Mr. 
Thayer gives these little Indians a Bible lesson aided by picture 
charts which he has ingeniously put together to tell the whole 

16 



biblical story. Then he talks to them awhile in their mother 
tongue. He is making his own dictionary and grammar of 
Navaho speech, using an up-to-date card catalogue system. 
Only, dear city friend, instead of buying his appliances at some 
library fixture store, he makes them with his own hands. 

During the day there will be a number of Indian visitors, 
especially to the mill room. Indian corn is the staple article 
of food in Navaho- land. The custom of the country is for 
women and children to grind by rubbing it between two stones. 
Our missionary has installed large coffee-rnills, two of them, of 
the simple kind used in retail grocery stores. It is a great boon 
to the natives to bring corn in their blankets and run it through 
these wonderful machines. Hence there is grinding nearly all 
day long. 

When the boarding school was to be established the mis- 
sionary built a log addition, an "L" to the adobe house. It 
has a partition half way to the ceiling. On one side of this 
partition, in their three beds sleep the nine little Indian girls, 
on the other side of it sleep Mr. and Mrs. Thayer so as to be 
right at hand in case of need. If you could look into the 
homes (?) from which these children have been brought you 
could better imagine the constant care which their physical and 
spiritual civilization entails upon the missionaries. 

The visiting Secretary had the whole of the main house to 
himself and slept so well in its comfortable guest room that 
he was not awakened even by a gunshot fired in the cellar. The 
marauder was instantly dispatched and sweetly, it ought to be 
added, for it was a "pole cat." One large room, the best in 
the house, next to the school room and the chapel, is a social 
room for the Indians. Its front door is never locked day or 
night. 

When Sunday comes, Indians gather from near and far, five 
miles being not far and fifteen miles not too far. In the fore- 
noon they have an illustrated Bible story. Then comes a lunch 
of crackers and coffee made too simple to be a bid for attend- 
ance. After that is another service at which the personal gospel 
message is pressed. The day I was there the most progressive 
farmer in the region stayed after the second service for a long 
talk with the missionary about starting on the Jesus Road. 

The missionaries are giving themselves to these heathen with 
an abandon which, if fully understood, would be almost ap- 

17 



palling not only to our church members who are living carefully 
sheltered lives but even to those who have life in its roughest 
forms. An Indian mother brought her daughter, Astan Yazza, 
with a fatal disease to a hut half mile from the mission house 
that Mrs. Thayer might minister to her for days. When the 
end came, the child was put outside to die according to Navaho 
custom. Otherwise native superstition would have required the 
hut to be torn down. In the morning word was sent to Mrs. 
Thayer. Mr. Thayer had been obliged to go to town, four 
days away, on a missionary errand. Could there be Christian 
burial? The Indians do not make even rude coffins nor do 
they dig graves. So our missionary's wife, naturally as far 
from doing such things as any lady who reads these lines, 
manages somehow with saw and hammer to make a casket, line 
it with white cloth, then with scant assistance from the mother, 
digs a grave in the hard soil. These are the easier parts of 
the self-imposed task. Our little missionary lady takes the 
corpse of the thirteen-year-old child in her arms and brings it 
the long half mile, including a necessary descent into a deep 
arroyo and the steep climb out of it, to the mission house. 
When with prayer she has given the child Christian burial her 
own hands must fill the grave. Does one remember much that 
was more astounding in the heroism of early missionaries to the 
heathen anywhere? On a question like that, perhaps I have 
some right to make intelligent answer. I freely say, "No, not 
anywhere." 

The Chicago Baptist Training School for missionary workers 
as well as Rochester Theological Seminary has a right to glory 
in the Two Gray Hills Mission. Mrs. Thayer was Ida Black- 
well at the school in 1901. One of the many good things to 
the credit of the Baptist Young People's Union of America is 
that the acquaintance of Mr. Thayer and Miss Blackwell be- 
gan at one of its annual conventions, to which they were both 
delegates the year it was held in Milwaukee. 

Before knowing the story of Astan Yazza — not one word 
of which did I ever hear from Mrs. Thayer — I said, "You 
ought to have another worker here for the sake of company 
when Mr. Thayer is away or in case of serious illness or other 
emergency." What was the answer to this? Remember that 
it comes from a dainty little lady who has been given unmistak- 
able reason to fear some of the Indians, and whose nearest 

18 




NAVAHO MOTHER AND CHILD 



white neighbor lives four miles away, with no other nearer than 
twenty miles, and after these two, no more short of forty miles. 
Remember that it is forty miles to a doctor and that it is 
seventy miles to a town, a telephone, a telegraph office or a 
railroad. Such desolate and difficult miles, too! What would 
you say to the suggestion of company in such a situation? This 

19 



is what she said: "We ought to enlarge the school and be 
raising up some boys as well as girls to make Christian homes 
by and by. If we can do that I shall be delighted to have 
another worker; but merely for the sake of company it is not 
necessary." 

I want to leave it to the men and women of our churches to 
say whether or not such workers shall be reinforced. It seems 
to me, however, that it might be well to take our dearest bved 
ones by the hand before we say and then to say it on our knees 
in the presence of Him who gave His life for us. 

Seventy miles with macadam roads and automobiles is not 
far, but with no roads, deep sands, deeper arroyos .a white 
canvas wagon and Indian ponies, it is a long way. When we 
came out we brought Carrie, the oldest pupil, the first day s 
journey to see the kind doctor at Tohatchie, the Government 
Indian School, which is under the charge of Mr. Ross, a good 
Baptist brother. The second day we discovered that even in 
New Mexico, when seven thousand feet above the sea, Decem- 
ber is not as pleasant as May. A driving snow storm met us at 
the outset. A number of wagon trails, all more or less faint, 
cross near Tohatchie. They were fast obscured by snow, while 
mountains, buttes and all other waymarks were blotted out. It 
drove so sharplv, head on, that our ponies veered and the ques- 
tion arose whether they and we could weather it and come to 
port. The thoughtful missionary had provided the tenderfoot 
with arctic overshoes, an extra pair of trousers, and a thick 
woolen muffler. Two suits of underclothing, gloves and socks, 
together with newspapers under the heavy overcoat, a thick 
Navaho blanket and a tarpaulin lap-robe, with a lighted lantern 
at our feet, kept us from getting too cold to talk of things human 
and divine. No chilblains followed on the tender feet nor 
other result more serious than a four weeks' bronchial cold 
which in no way interfered with scheduled work. For once, 
just once, the whole experience was to be coveted. 

But the next day, as the missionary started back over that 
frozen desert road, his wagon loaded down with supplies for 
the distant mission station, I stood and watched the white wagon 
as long as it could be seen, with a lump in my throat not caused 
by the cold. As I write the mist comes back to my eyes at the 
thought of such heroism as I was beholding in those tender souls 



20 



who live month after month for Christ's sake and the sake of 
the stolid barbarians at Two Gray Hills. The two gray hills 
are hidden behind two bright summits of Christlike devotion. 

IV. IS IT WORTH WHILE 
Is it worth while to make such sacrifices? The great and the 
final answer is that Christ gave his life for the unworthy. An- 
other is that our overwhelming white race in the United States 
is under peculiar obligations to the remnants of the red race. 
The Navahos are the largest unbroken tribe left. Though 
almost in the path of early Roman Catholic missions, they never 




(.AMBLING — THE PREVALENT VICE OF THE NAVAHOS 



have been even nominally Christianized. They are less demor- 
alized by vicious whites than are other tribes. They are heathen 
pure and simple. They have sturdy hearts which make them at 
the same time harder to reach and better worth reaching than 
most aborigines. 

F. M. Pruddens says: "Altogether they are among the 
most interesting of the aborigines who live in the old fashion, 
hold to the old deities, and maintain a degree of self-respect 
and independence in the face of the blighting influences of civili- 
zation which is noteworthy and admirable." 

The Navahos are almost free from intemperance. May 
prohibition on the Reservation be ever in force. Gambling has 

21 




TYPN AL NAVAHO VOl NG 



been one of their besetting sins, so much so that teachers have 

felt obi ged to take away Sunday-school picture cards rom 

hdd^n "because they used them for ga mbling. Lovefo h 

vTce He has the satisfaction of seeing great movement 

In the matter of trustworthiness, these Indians stand high 
A man who for fifteen years has been trading first and last with 



22 



RD lM 




TWO NAVAHO HOPEFULS 



all the tribes west of the Mississippi, tells me that of them all, as 
men with whom to deal, the Navahos are the most satisfactory. 
"If they promise to bring you a hundred sound sheep at a given 
time, a full hundred will be there on the dot and every one of 
them sound. But," he added, "the next minute they will let 
you turn around and pick out another hundred for yourself with- 
out any warning as to the unsoundness of the lot." Taken all 
in all, so far as I can learn from reading considerable printed 
testimony as well as from conversation with close observers of 
many sorts, these heath-men rank with the best quality of 
heathen. 

In 1 869 the Government gave the Navahos a few thousand 
sheep and goats. Since then the people have provided for them- 
selves. When, not long ago, there was a season of unusual 
drought and consequent suffering it was proposed to give them 
Government aid. A committee of chiefs requested the Govern- 
ment not to do this lest Navahos become like so many other 

23 



"The noble red man" of tradition is not 

every Navaho for whom we as Baptists are nei f 

House. 

.4 FORWARD MOVE 

■N order to get closer -to a larger number of the rising 
generation of KaVahos, Mr. and Mrs. Thayer are no. 
stationed at Keams Canon, Ariz., near to a Government 
School. This also enables the missionary to have an o^rs,gblo) 
the Hopi churches not far a»ay. The noble women who have 
created the Hopi mission have long been pleadmg for an 
ordained missionary). 



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